Sunday, December 20, 2009

13 really useful Femtoo Tracker

This article will give 12 examples of interesting ways to use Femtoo (http://www.femtoo.com). The examples focus on Femtoo Trackers - as opposed to functionality like notifications, the API or site widgets.

'Trackers' are the core concept behind Femtoo. Principly you give a tracker a URL to a webpage and configure the notification options. Femtoo will monitor the page and if changes are detected it will send out the notifications. However, as the following examples will highlight, Femtoo trackers are considerable more powerful than this brief description may suggest.

1. Track a product for price and stock availability changes

So you want to buy an Amazon Kindle? But they're a bit pricey? Well, you could create a Femtoo Tracker and point it at the Kindle product page, select the 'price' on the page (using the Tracker Content Helper) and you will recieve notifications everytime the price changes. Moreover, you can set a Rule and specifiy that you only wish to be notified if the price falls below $200 (for example).

Of course, you can follow exactly the same process above, for any product on any online shop. And if that 'must have' item is out of stock, simply track the 'number in stock' field and you will be notified as soon as it is back in stock. Also Femtoo often sends notifications far quicker than the integrated systems that shops may already have installed - this means that by using Femtoo you will probably be notified before any other shoppers, so you can get in quick and make the purchase before they run out again.

2. Track Blogs and public forums for new or updated content

So maybe your a fan of the Google Blog (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ ) and you want to be informed any new blog post. Simply create a Femtoo Tracker, point it at "http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ ", then use the Content Helper to select either the title or 'published date' of the most recent blog post. Now, whenever Google publishes a new article, you will be notified.

TIP: Because the notifications include the text you select, it probably makes more sense to select the actual title so when can immediately see if the post is of interest to you without having to visit the website.

Another great example here is tracking public 'question & answer' type forums for example Stack Overflow (http://stackoverflow.com), or Yahoo Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com/). If you have a question and are interested to know when somebody submits a new answer - simple point a tracker at the 'question page' and track the 'number of answers' field, or the current 'best' answer.

3. Track new software versions

Maybe you are waiting to get your hands on the latest features of your favourite software, or maybe you are waiting for the critical bug fix to be released - whatever the reason, you can use Femtoo to inform you of the latest software releases.

Simply point a Femtoo Tracker at web page that contains the latest version number - when it changes, you will be notified. For example, to track the latest version of the amazing jQuery library, create a tracker and point it to http://jquery.com/ (the version number is shown in red, under the download button).

We can take 7-Zip (the awesome free archive manager) as another example, simply point a Tracker to http://www.7-zip.org/ and select the text "Download 7-Zip 4.65 (2009-02-03) for Windows" (located at the top of the page). Although this isn't exactly the version number, we can make the assumption that when this text changes it probably signifies a new version is available.

4. Track when a website stops working

(service piggy-backing)
http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

5. Track online parcel deliveries

(service piggy-backing)
Create a tracker that tells you when your parcel has arrived in your town, or simply when the consignment status has changed.

6. Track when a currency exchange rate hits a certain level

(in progress)
www.xe.com

7. News headlines

(in progress)
news.bbc.co.uk

8. Track concerts of your favourite artists

(service piggy-backing)
by using eventful.com

9. Track changes in your client or competitor websites

(in progress)

10. Track Wikipedia page changes

(in progress)

11. Track the 'number of views' of your YouTube videos

(in progress)
Your own companies promotional video

12. Track your own website and monitor user activity

This is how I track new Femtoo user issues and user registrations

13. Get notified when your favourite cartoonist has published a new comic strip

Dilbert

Wrap up

The above example are just a few of the ways people are using Femtoo Trackers. Maybe you can think of more... start tracking the Internet today at Femtoo.com...